Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers must have been like kids in a candy shop when they sat down to hammer out the first draft of Spider-Man: No Way Home, knowing they’d been handed the keys to a multiversal superhero epic that allowed them to incorporate the Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield and Tom Holland eras into a single story.
As a result, the internet was bombarded with what turned out to be false rumors and speculation that any number of additional favorites were set for cameo appearances, a list that included (but was in no way limited to) the likes of Emma Stone’s Gwen Stacy, Kirsten Dunst’s Mary Jane Watson, Paul Giamatti’s Rhino, Dane DeHaan’s Green Goblin, Michael Keaton’s Vulture and plenty more besides.
In an interview with Variety, the duo admitted that they initially planned to feature even more surprise guests in No Way Home, before realizing they’d have to pull things back significantly so as not to overcook the narrative.
“Let’s write the script that is the kitchen sink and we’ll just act like we were going to get everything we wish for. And like Peter’s wish, it became a nightmare, and it required very, very talented people to help us not die at the end. We went down different roads with different characters that just didn’t fit.
We can’t get into the details of that because it might be the kind of thing where they’ll find a way to explore those ideas. So I’d hate to spoil anything, because I think we had a lot of fun. The first draft, we bit off more than we could chew. Maybe some would argue that we still bit off more than we can chew.”
It would be an understatement to say that fans were more than happy with what they ended up getting, with Spider-Man: No Way Home winning rave reviews and toppling box office records with the greatest of ease, and it’s not as if the movie is lacking when it comes to returning stars.
